Chapter 3010 — Wei Zhao's Affairs

"A birthday banquet?" In Tang Zhi's mind, memories of her time hidden away with the Tang family suddenly surfaced—Wei Zhao gripping her hand, breaking all ties with the Hidden Tang. Back then, helpless as she had been, standing at Wei Zhao's side had filled her with a profound sense of safety and peace. But now he had forgotten her, and she and he had become an eternal impossibility. And who should come calling at her door but the very "birth father" who had abandoned wife and daughter and cut all ties with her!

Tang Yuyi looked awkward. He glanced at Patriarch Tang, then at Tang Zhi, and with a sigh said, "Sister Tang Zhi, I know there is resentment in your heart, but this man, after all, is the father of you and me both..."

"I know." Tang Zhi nodded. Her impression of Tang Yuyi was still fairly good, and since he had spoken up, she did not make further objections. She merely asked, "But what have you come here to do?"

"Sister Tang Zhi, the matter is... actually like this. I expect you have heard the news as well? It concerns Senior Wei Zhao..." Though Tang Yuyi's relationship with Tang Zhi was decent, they had met far too briefly for him to be sure she would do him this favor, so he chose his words with great care.

"Wei Zhao? Senior? What news?" Tang Zhi did not understand. Since when had Wei Zhao become a "senior" in Tang Yuyi's mouth? Even though she had seen Wei Zhao at Snow Valley last time and learned of some of his heroic deeds—how, at the Earth rank, he could instantly slay Heaven-rank cultivators—that was still no reason to call him a senior, was it?

Tang Yuyi was taken aback. He knew nothing of the inner circumstances behind Tang Zhi's trip to Snow Valley; he had only gathered from peripheral rumors that she had gone there and become an important Elder, and knew nothing beyond that.

But if Tang Zhi was so important at Snow Valley, and the disciples there even addressed her as Elder Tang, how could she possibly not know news about Wei Zhao? So Tang Yuyi could not tell whether she was deliberately feigning ignorance to avoid talking with him, or truly did not know.

"Sister Tang Zhi... you don't know?" Tang Yuyi stared at her, trying to read from her face whether she was unwilling to speak or genuinely ignorant. To his regret, though she had asked the question, her expression had not changed at all—still keeping others at a thousand miles' distance.

"I have been in secluded cultivation all this time. I only came out of seclusion just now and heard that you had arrived, so naturally I know nothing." Tang Zhi shook her head. "Go on, then. What has happened to Wei Zhao?"

She was desperate to know about Wei Zhao, but she showed only indifference; she did not want Tang Yuyi or Patriarch Tang to see through her.

"The matter is like this..." Tang Yuyi did not hold back. Since Tang Zhi had asked him to speak, he recounted in full detail how Wei Zhao had been injured, poisoned, and crippled, then miraculously recovered and annihilated the Hidden Zhao—all of it, for Tang Zhi to hear.

Tang Zhi was astonished beyond measure. Wei Zhao was already an early Heaven-rank expert? It had not been long at all since she last saw him—his rate of advancement was truly frightening!

And the Hidden Zhao had already been wiped out? To think that the Hidden Zhao—a formidable enemy Wei Zhao had provoked back in Songshan City—had been reduced to a stepping stone beneath his feet.

Tang Zhi was genuinely happy for Wei Zhao. Though she knew there was likely to be no intersection between them, she still harbored the fantasy that even if she cultivated the Heartless Art, became an Inheritor, and ascended to the Heavenly Dao—if Wei Zhao ascended as well, then perhaps she and he could still meet again.

It was only the matter of Wei Zhao being stricken with a strange poison, his meridians and dantian destroyed, that left her deeply alarmed. She knew his body had some self-recovery ability after injury, but with both dantian and meridians ruined, could he still recover?

At least by Tang Zhi's understanding of cultivators, such an injury was beyond recovery—yet Wei Zhao had recovered nonetheless. It came as a relief, and she counted herself fortunate that she had agreed to see Tang Yuyi; at least it had brought her news of Wei Zhao.

Tang Yuyi's words softened Tang Zhi's attitude toward the two men. Perhaps because she was happy for Wei Zhao's sake, she nodded and said, "So that is how it is. I understand now. Then tell me—what is your purpose in coming here?"

Tang Yuyi glanced at Patriarch Tang. The matter of acknowledging kin was naturally best raised by Patriarch Tang himself—after all, Patriarch Tang was Tang Zhi's father, and he, as an elder brother, could hardly be the one to say he had come to acknowledge a little sister.

That would be rather presumptuous. This business was Patriarch Tang's to lead in any case, and Tang Yuyi was not even Tang Zhi's brother by the same mother, but only a half-brother by a different mother.

Patriarch Tang looked troubled, but he knew this matter could only be raised by him. So he said, "It is like this, Tang Zhi. I want... to have you return to the Hidden Tang... to acknowledge your ancestry and return to the clan!"

"Oh?" Hearing this, Tang Zhi found it rather amusing. "Mr. Tang, I have no relationship whatsoever with the Hidden Tang. And you were the one who drove me out back then. Why should I go back?"

"That..." Patriarch Tang was struck speechless. Indeed—what practical benefit was there in Tang Zhi returning to acknowledge the clan? She was already an Elder of Snow Valley, wielding considerable power and prestige, and cared nothing for the status of the Hidden Tang. And secondly, it truly had been he who drove Tang Zhi away back then; to summon her back now was indeed somewhat unreasonable.

"If there is nothing else, then please go back, both of you. Since you will not speak the truth, there is no need for us to talk further." Tang Zhi gave Patriarch Tang a cold glance as she spoke. She certainly did not believe that his conscience had stirred and that he had come to acknowledge kin; there must be some other purpose at work.

"That..." Patriarch Tang looked to Tang Yuyi for help, because he had realized that in front of this Tang Zhi, he had grown somewhat guilty and hesitant. Tang Zhi had not displayed her strength, but her bearing and the attitude of those Snow Valley disciples were enough to show that her power was no trifling matter—otherwise she could not possibly serve as a Snow Valley Elder.

Most likely Tang Zhi's strength had already surpassed Tang Taizhong's, which was why Patriarch Tang scarcely dared to speak in her presence.

Tang Yuyi had no choice but to brace himself and say, "Sister Tang Zhi, I know that after I speak these words, you will surely think worse of me. But sometimes there is no helping it. As a disciple of the Hidden Tang, there are things I must say! So I beg your forgiveness."

Tang Zhi glanced at Tang Yuyi. She was not an unreasonable person. For the covert protection Tang Yuyi had once given her birth mother, Xiao Ming, Tang Zhi was in fact deeply grateful, and through Xiao Ming she had learned a good deal about Tang Yuyi. So her attitude toward him and toward Patriarch Tang were entirely different. After a moment's hesitation, she said, "Brother Yuyi, go ahead. I understand your position."(To be continued.